Thursday, May 29, 2008

Jim goes to a lot of auctions and buys box lots. He may be bidding on only one item in the box, but gets to take it all home if he is the winning bidder. The upstairs overfloweth! So he's been working all week getting ready to have a garage sale today. He had a steady flow of customers all day and sold quite a bit.

We're picking JJ up at the train station tonight. He's having computer problems and needs to get it running ASAP since he uses it for work. I don't know how long he'll stay, but even a brief visit is good.

Yesterday I put together a top for UGRR. The yellow striped fabric made it look like more work than it actually was to make. I'm thinking a young girl might like the bright pink.

Today I sewed about a dozen more little log cabins for my broken star wall hanging from this post. I should be about halfway done with the blocks needed.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

It took awhile, but I am now caught up with the Orange Crush mystery! My machine was smokin' here the last few days sewing day and night. The photo shows my Step 5 blocks and half blocks which means I have now also finished Steps 2 & 3. It feels good to be on top of one project anyway. The orange and blue remind me of Detroit Tigers' colors, but they are currently a very sad story.

Over the Memorial Day week-end I sewed 30 patriotic string blocks and 160" of Chinese coins strips for Heartstrings. They will be mailed and used for soldier quilts. These made a huge dent in my red, white/tan & blue strips.

Click on over to Embroidery Stitches for an opportunity to win a bundle of Benartex fat quarters.

Hope everyone has a relaxing and productive day!

Oops! While browsing through the Orange Crush photos on the Yahoo list, I noticed four blocks that I hadn't done for Step 5. NOW I am caught up! The colors appear a bit washed out on this photo. The first photo is more true to what they fabrics look like.

Friday, May 23, 2008

This Memorial Day week-end promises to have temperatures that match the official arrival of summer on the calendar. I'm looking forward to being outside and enjoying it.

Today I sewed ten patriotic string blocks for Heartstrings. I have a pile of foundation squares cut, but my red, white/tan, & blue strips are limited. Might have to go on a search and find in the sewing room.I couldn't resist adding this photo of Annie sleeping in the bed upstairs. She looks so comfortable.

The lilacs, tulips and daffodils are done blooming, but the snowball bush is getting ready to bloom. There's plenty of weeds out there, too, just waiting for my removal. I'm torn between wanting to be outside and wanting to sew.

If you're looking for a give-away, click on over Home Sweet Home. Jo Jo has some cute bling or a surprise box maybe waiting for you.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

I've been buried under stacks of fabrics, patterns, projects, books and magazines for some time. There has been some progress yesterday and today finding things and catching up in general.

At the March Clothesline Club we were given instructions how to make a notebook that would hold our newsletters and pattern sheets. My sister, Connie, kindly offered to embroider my name on the inside pocket. Yesterday I finished the binding and loaded the contents. I also sorted the Clothesline Club fabrics into a plastic drawer so I would know where they are when I need them.

The April Stitchery BOTM from Bea at Capricorn Quilts has been almost done since mid April. It is now in the finished pile, also. I should be able to stitch the May block before the next one is shown.

All thirty of my Step Four blocks for the Orange Crush mystery are sewn and pressed! I still need to finish Steps Two and Three, but they weren't needed for the last step.

For those who asked - here are some of the fabrics I purchased in Shipshewana and Paducah while visiting in April. There are a lot of Jo Morton prints in there which was the main focus of our shopping. Also couldn't resist the Marcus Brothers and Windham repros!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

I couldn't wait to see what my blocks for Step Four of the Orange Crush mystery would look like even though I haven't completely finished Steps Two or Three. Wouldn't you know that I would randomly grab units with the same fabrics? Not sure if I can live with that yet.

The flowers that bloom in May are some of my favorites, especially the lilacs. Their fragrance permiates my kitchen, more pleasing than any expensive perfume.

Look at the great Detroit Tigers glasses my son, Mike, brought me from his recent training in the Detroit area. Of course, he had to consume a certain beer to get them, but he made the sacrifice. We had tickets to last Friday's ballgame and they finally gave us a win! Our other three games were losses - not nearly as much fun.

Carolyn from Ohio Quilter's Journey is giving away fabric. Stop by her blog and answer a question to be eligible.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

For roughly thirty years, Thursday has meant lunch with Aunt Ruth. Sometimes she would make us lunch at her house and we always enjoyed a cup of tea. Other times we ate at the local restaurant that has the yummy desserts. Since, January, my visits were mostly in the afternoon as she wasn't feeling up to eating out anymore. We still had our cup of tea.

We shared a love of crafts and hand work. She did wonderful cross stitch, sewed cute dolls, animals and tote bags and crocheted many beautiful afghans. I think she lost count of how many Ann and Andy dolls she made. She used to piece quilt squares that she cut with her scissors one at a time from fabric that she had marked with a pencil. She called these her utility quilts. Each one was a work of art in my eyes.

Aunt Ruth loved flowers and birds. Before it became too difficult for her, she had bird feeders outside her kitchen window so she could enjoy watching them. She enjoyed jigsaw puzzles, especially ones that depicted places she had traveled. The finished puzzles adorn the walls in her garage. Crossword puzzles also held her interest and she played a mean game of Scrabble.

We often solved the world's problems sitting across from each other at her kitchen table. There were searches to find the name of a person, a place or a particular pattern. This was homework for us - meant to report the following Thursday. When I left her last week, I said, "See you next Thursday." I didn't know it would be the last one. She wasn't just my aunt, she was one of my best friends and I will miss her every day.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

My Easy Angle Ruler 'appeared' the other day so I was able to cut the triangles that go with the squares for Step 2 of The Orange Crush mystery. Not sure how much fabric was used, but I know I didn't buy anything new THIS week.

Angela at Cottage Magpie issued a challenge to photograph things that are yellow around our house. Here is what I found.

Friday, May 2, 2008

The 50 vendors at the new AQS location on Park Avenue were open on Tuesday. There were conflicting articles as to the time they would open. We went with the 9:00 a.m. option and were the only shoppers among the vendors still putting final touches in their booths. A few asked who let us in, but most were eager to have us shop. I bought a book called Wacky Rails by Rhonda Dieker that has several different looks for string quilts. Also bought a pattern for a quilt one of the vendors had made using almost all Jo Morton fabrics.

Next stop was the Rotary Antique Quilt Show where we were treated to an exhibit of antique basket quilts curated by Bobbie Aug and Gerald Roy, a display of Hoffman Challenge quilts and more vendors. Added a few FQs to our bags here, too.

We drove to the Carson Park Fairgrounds where Eleanor Burns had her tents of fabric bolts and her building of patterns, books, etc. The fabric wasn't nearly as tempting as it was last year, but we did find a couple of deals. We missed Eleanor's tent show this year, but heard it was wonderful.

Downtown to the AQS Vendors on Kentucky Avenue. The first booth we saw as we entered the building was Bonnie Blue Quilts. They had a basket quilt on display that I really liked.

It was a beautiful day outside. We ate lunch and then sat in the gazebo area on Broadway for awhile just enjoying the fresh air and feeling lucky to be in Paducah again. After visiting a few more vendors on Broadway, we had an ice cream cone to rev us up again.

The Awards Presentation at the Carson Center and the Sneak Preview at the Convention Center kept us busy until almost ten o'clock. We were dragging by the time we got back to the hotel. It's a lot of work having fun sometimes.

The pictures show the flood wall murals along the Ohio River, a look down Broadway and the giant cow that sits near the ice cream place. It always looks to me like cars will drive right into the river, but they don't.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Back to the Paducah trip - Day One... Connie and I arrived in Paducah on Monday afternoon just after lunch time. Since it was too early to check in, we headed over to Hancock's. For not needing anything, we both filled our bags pretty full. FYI, Hancock's didn't sponsor the Best of Show this year. In fact, they didn't sponsor anything. We learned this after our shopping trip.

We also checked out Hobby Lobby and found hardly any fabric or books! They used to have loads of bolts and books on sale. Another one to cross off of our list in the future.

For dinner, we drove to Grand Rivers to eat at Patti's 1880 Settlement. This was our first time there even though we've been to Paducah seventeen times. The grounds were in bloom and the food was delicious! There were several gift shops around the restaurant. One of them had chicken chairs on the porch. The water wheel and flowers brought my camera out.

I haven't even unzipped my bag with the new fabric yet. It is full of mostly all Jo Morton fabrics. Connie and I had fun hunting the booths for them.

More soon.

Last night I started cutting the strips for the Orange Crush Mystery Quilt - Step Two. Do you think I can find my Easy Angle ruler? Of course not, so the strips remain strips.